Germany

GE tours 60-metre blade across Germany

GERMANY: GE is transporting a 60-metre blade from its new 2.5-120 turbine across Germany as part of promotional campaign for the machine.

GE blade will travel across Germany from the company's headquarters in Salzbergen

The blade is being taken on 24 June from GE's Flensburg plant via its headquarters at Salzbergen in the north-western state of Lower Saxony to the Technical University in Berlin, where is will form part of an event to discuss Germany's wind industry.

The blade will then be taken to southern Germany, stopping at technology universities in Munich before being transported to a site in Nuremberg where it is to be installed.

Cliff Harris, GE's's newly-appointed general manager of Europe for GE Renewables, said: "Onshore wind energy could contribute even more substantially to make the Energiewende a success than it does today.

Our new intelligent wind turbine 2.5-120 is technically equipped to achieve this. It utilises the industrial internet to guarantee maximum efficiency and yield even in low-wind regions."

Although the turbine is designed for IEC III low wind locations common in Germany, GE has struggled against the dominance of Enercon in recent years.

As an indication of GE's position in Germany, it was not included by name in installation by manufacturer statistics for 2012 released by German wind energy institute DEWI (according to GE, it has installed 45MW in Germany since 2009).

In addition to using GE's longest blade, the 2.5-120 also features battery storage. The system converts from AC to DC and then back to 50/60hz AC.

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